Neverliria

Review

You play as a red-headed girl who is lost in the dark mysterious forest of Neverliria, in this side-scrolling survival sandbox game from SmartHart Games.

The game starts at night and you see a small fire burning away on some old ruins with some sort of inscription upon them. You go and investigate, and it welcomes you and explains that this dark forest used to belong to a powerful kingdom long since passed and taken over by the “Shadows” who now rule these lands. “Light is your only guide and salvation. Let good luck be on your side,” you’re told, and you will need it. From here you can go through the tutorial which will give you some idea of how to play the game, although there are some parts which you’ll have to figure out for yourself.

Once you exit the tutorial your survival in the dark forest begins. You’ll have a certain amount of time before nightfall, so collecting resources as fast as you can is a must. You’ll need to collect food and wood as you’ll become hungry quite quickly, and if you don’t have any food they’ll be restarting the game before you’ve had time to settle. You’ll need wood to build a fire at night as they’ll keep the Shadows at bay, at least for now.

It’s wise to put down somewhere and make a camp, as the resources can be far apart and in limited supply, so you’ll have to make your own. Setting up a corn farm and tree farm as quickly as possible will help with a steady supply of food and wood. You’ll also need to build other buildings like a windmill, so you can produce bread dough and then a furnace, allowing you to make bread, which is great for when you’re hungry as it’ll fill you right up, unlike corn, which will only replenish part of your hunger. There are other buildings like an herb farm, tavern, and brewery which you’ll have to build; some buildings are hidden from view to start with, and you’ll have to explore to unlock them.

While exploring you will come across ruined buildings which you may be able to rebuild or collect as resources. There are also other characters who you’ll come across who will trade with you if you get something for them. When exploring, it’s sometimes best not to wander too far away from your base. Keep your eyes open for the Phantom Rune which randomly appears around midday and will show you where the Shadows will spawn from. That way you can plan ahead, but still may need to get back to build a couple fires or walls to keep out most of the Shadows from your base, otherwise they’ll destroy anything they can and nick any resources you may have saved. As you progress there are new Shadows which will appear, some of whom will walk past the fires or destroy any walls you’ve built, so you’ll have to figure out how to stop them; maybe rebuilding some ruins will help.

You can run through the forest (unless you have the scooter, then you’ll move faster) but as soon as you carry anything you’ll be slowed to a walk. As you can only carry one thing at a time, it’s best to make a chest and carry that with you to store your resources. Later you can make a mobile chest, which I think will make things a bit easier. You can get your buildings upgraded to have the resources you’ve grown be stored by leprechauns while you’re away from camp.

Each new game is procedurally generated, so the ruins and characters will be in different places and one game might be easier than the next. It can be frustrating at times, especially when the Shadows just walk through your defences or spawn in your camp while you’re away trying to collect those extra resources. Keep an eye on how hungry you are, especially early on in the game, as hunger can hit you before you know it, and if you’re not prepared, you’ll die.

There’s not much in the way of in game options, with a choice of three languages, continue, new game and quit, but there are some for graphics, screen resolution, windowed, select monitor and input on the Neverliria configuration as you start the game. The game saves automatically when you quit the game if you haven’t died.

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com!

Positives

+ Nice pixel graphics
+ Music/Sounds
+ Achievements

Negatives

- A bit slow when carrying resources
- Frustrating at times
- Can’t re-map keys
- No cards as of yet

Review Summary

Collect, build and farm for resources in order to survive in the dark mysterious forest of Neverliria